be inspired by the passing parade

So if you follow me on Instagram you’ll know that I love to make things or create or play around with stuff. I’m ok at some things, not fab at others, but with the power of the whole community spirit thing over there and all the awesome inspiration I’m surrounded with (and all the questions I ask!) I give it a go. Whenever I want to try something. Always. This wasn’t the case all that long ago and for alllll the other years of my life but it is now.

Anyway, on Friday while in full making mode for my brother’s birthday I decided I’d start to a new ‘maker maker’ project. It’s what the little and I call making, her phrase not mine. So what better time to start a completely new craft project than when you’re in the middle of trying to complete others and get ready to head out for dinner early. Try not to slap your forehead reading this 😉

required tags and dye

The day before while at Spotlight we bought some clothes dye after seeing an episode of Playschool. E had wanted to dye a t-shirt in the same way the kids did in the video. I had seen someone on Pinterest fancying up tags with dye (no idea what kind, I never followed that pin, oops!) and thought I could do the same. I had some gorgeous thick and some embossed tags I’d received from The Make Good Co (I’m a brand ambassador, and small plug, they have a blog and each week a new mini make happens, its inspired me to get all crafty with little projects. Also, they have a sale on at the moment so get in quick as some tags are part of the sale) and had a feeling they’d be perfect for this project. They were.

What did I do?

dipping tags in the container while in the sink was safest

I put a tiny amount of green dye in a tiny little container with boiling hot water and lined up my tags, and clothes horse with pegs and paper towel underneath and set to work. I made sure the liquid was still quite dark, I didn’t want light dye though sadly I didn’t measure the water for you, basically enough to dip but not so much you lost colour. I’ll be doing this again with red or a pastel colour so I’ll do measurements then.

I resealed the little bag the dye was in so that E couldn’t access it at all.

Very carefully, I dipped the tags into the dye liquid one at a time, only part way up the tag. Each tag was left in the dye for about 10 seconds. One of the darker ones I left a bit longer and there is a speckled on that I repeated this process with as I wasn’t sure if it was long enough. Each card was then carefully shaken to removed any really drippy bits and pegged onto my clotheshorse (clothes airer), which was over the bench a little.

They stayed there and dried slowly and I’m not sure if it was luck, but they barely dripped. The re-dipping meant I could have a graduated colour look on the tags, though this dying method would work really well to just colour tags completely for parties or gifts or dinner settings (if you have dinners, I don’t 🙂 ) or anything else you might use a tag or piece of thick card for. They do warp a little as drying though.

allow the pegs to dry a little between each dip, a different effect may be achieved with regular pompt re-dipping

During the morning I carefully re-dipped each tag a little higher each time, pinned it up to let it dry a bit more and then repeated the steps. Each time I held the tags in the dye for about 10 seconds, though as I neared the top, I did just do a quick, dip it in and bring it out…maybe 3-5 seconds. Just enough to colour slightly.

Mine didn’t dry out completely each time and after about the 3rd time dipping I did tip some of the dye liquid out and put more boiling water in. As the water cooled, it seemed to make the dye on the tag run a different colour. In this instance a red/purple. It didn’t seem to dilute the dye too much when I added more water.

The tags were then left up to dry for about 5 hours. They’re now ready to use and I can’t wait. I’m quite happy with the way mine turned out. Though, as I said I may dye some another colour now for birthdays throughout the year. And will of course need to re-stock tags soon 😂

dried ready to use tags

If you try this let me know how you go or tag #makemedizzywithcraft on instagram 🙂